Arif Shakeel will be honored as this year’s Outstanding Alumnus of the University
of Memphis’ Herff College of Engineering. Honorees receiving the College’s Service
Award are Tommy Carls, E. Hunter Harrison, John Ray Jr., and International Paper.

The awards banquet will be Tuesday, April 16, at the Holiday Inn at the University
of Memphis, 3700 Central Ave. The event will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m.
followed by dinner at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $35 for Alumni Association members, $40 for non-members. Persons who
want to sponsor a student at the dinner can purchase a student ticket for $25. A
silent auction at the event will raise funds for alumni chapter book scholarships
for deserving engineering students.

Reservations for the dinner are requested by April 10. They may be made by calling
Debi Scott at 901-678-4306.

Shakeel is a director of Western Digital Corporation and its former CEO. He earned
his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the U of M in 1977 and
his Master of Business Administration degree from Pepperdine University in 1981.
He began his career with Western Digital in 1985. Before being named chief executive
officer in 2005, he had served the company as product manager, vice president for
materials-Asia, senior vice president for worldwide operations, executive vice president,
and chief operating officer.

Located in Lake Forest, Calif., Western Digital is one of the world’s largest computer
information storage manufacturers. Employing 96,000 workers across the globe, it
posted almost $12.5 billion in revenue in 2012. It provides storage solutions for
all the leading personal computer manufacturers and is involved in network attached
storage and cloud computing.

Under Shakeel’s leadership, the company improved its manufacturing efficiency by increasing
its capacity and reducing its operating expenses nearly 50 percent. From 2004 to
2005, production increased and revenue doubled, from $2 billion to almost $4 billion.
At the same time, Western Digital posted the most consistent profits and the highest
revenue on invested capital in the hard-drive industry.